


half-and-half

by ggemini



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, warnings in a/n please please please read!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ggemini/pseuds/ggemini
Summary: Mark can’t close his eyelids but ceases seeing anything anyway. “Hello?” Sooyoung pokes his cheek. She purses her glossy lips in a childish pout. “You could’ve at least answered the question before you died. Prick.”





	half-and-half

**Author's Note:**

> lotsa warnings for this one: pretty graphic depiction of violence or at least multiple mentions of violence and death, major character death, satanism, cursing, very mild sexual content  
> +++ all of rv aged down to eighteen-ish  
> see u on the other side

Feeling his arteries emptying out through the slits on his wrists and soaking his Levi’s and hoodie, blinking aimlessly against the erratic flicker of the led panel lights on the ceiling, Mark counts three simple mistakes he could’ve avoided with relatively minimal effort:

  1. Buying a litre bottle of water and taking a large gulp from it whenever he guessed someone’s sentence was about to stray to the matter of his old school or New York or his slightly wonky intonation. To avoid answering the question, as has been his habit since the excruciatingly awkward transpacific skype calls with his grandparents when he was eight.
  2. Letting a joking _you look kinda nerdy_ a girl shot at him in middle school affect him enough to still avoid using his glasses outside his house, even if it meant he couldn’t discern the girls’ bathroom’s sign from the boys’ one.
  3. Not thinking to catch the door before it closed with a horrible clang, attracting the attention of a girl crouched in the middle of the floor, tracing a pentagram onto the tiles with glossy red nail polish—and subsequently, the startling, mascara-clumped gazes of four other girls gathered around the first one.



Failing to run away could’ve been a fourth, but Mark thinks escaping was never an option. The shortest girl bared her heart-braced teeth in a wicked smile and, simultaneously with the lock on the door clicking shut without a hand to turn it, started her deceivingly mundane sentence, “You new? I haven’t seen you before.”

Mark nodded. The girl with the nail polish tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Are you aware you’re in the ladies’ bathroom?” she asked, straightening up.

That’s when Mark knew he was going to die. And that’s what he’s currently doing in the middle of the nail polish pentagram. Dying. Luckily, almost completely exempt from pain thanks to some sparkly pill the girl sitting on his left ankle shoved down his throat before the shortest one pulled out her decorated pocket knife.

The girls are holding his limbs down, each at their respective point of the star. One of them is reading a spell from her flip phone, Mark’s head between her knees. She must have pretty serious dyslexia because she misreads and hesitates and stumbles.

Another girl clicks her tongue against her palate. Pointily, she questions why they let _Sooyoung_ conduct the ritual. Sooyoung’s eyebrows furrow like she’s hurt but it might just be the angle Mark’s looking at her from.

The kitty charm attached to the phone sways lightly. Mark focuses on it, the sole constant he can latch onto while he empties out like a pitiful plastic bottle. There’s a ton of things he could be thinking about during this time Sooyoung’s unwillingly bought for him but his mind’s empty. He can’t even remember who he should’ve bid goodbye to.

“Hey, you,” Sooyoung calls, patting Mark’s cheek right after she’s flipped her phone shut and slipped it into her pocket, having finished reading out the spell. “Forgot to ask. What’s your name?”

Mark’s slipping off the blood-glazed reality into something black and cold and hollow. But he manages to mumble, “Mark.”

“Oh?” Sooyoung chirrups. The cusps of her hair almost brush Mark’s cheek when she leans closer to him. “Are you a foreigner or are you one of those dweebs who think Western names are cooler?”

Mark can’t close his eyelids but ceases seeing anything anyway. “Hello?” Sooyoung pokes his cheek. She purses her glossy lips in a childish pout. “You could’ve at least answered the question before you died. Prick.”

/

Mark doesn’t expect to wake up but he does. He runs his fingers over his wrists one after the other but they’re perfectly smooth and intact. No tattered skin, just the echo of muffled pain.

Mark swings his legs off the bed and hops onto his feet. His knees buckle. In a second a man’s there, wearing a white coat and helping him up. Saying, “Sure you’re not feeling dizzy anymore, Jeno?”

“Jeno?” Mark wonders aloud. “No, I’m - _shut up._ ”

The nurse stares at Mark, not yet decided on whether he should be offended or plain stupefied. Mark sticks his tongue out of his mouth, trying to figure out how it moved without him telling it to. Then, a voice pops up inside his head. _Okay, so either I’ve got some alien brain parasite in my head or I’m hallucinating._

_What the fuck_ , Mark thinks, and the voice apparently hears it because there’s a scream - a real one that has the nurse frowning while he digs out a thermometer.

_It’s an alien parasite is this an anime oh my god oh my god oh my god-_ the voice hollers. Mark’s hands shift in terror on his lap. He concentrates to keep them still. The nurse sticks the thermometer under his arm.

Something really messed up is going on in this school. Mark tries shushing whoever else is trapped inside the same body with him. _Dude, calm down. I just think I’ve shifted bodies. I don’t know if that’s what’s supposed to happen when you’re sacrificed to Satan-_

It doesn’t help at all. _WHAT,_ is all Mark gets before the voice resorts to quietly murmuring, _it’s not really happening, it’s not really happening, it’s not really happening._

An hour or five minutes ago - he really can’t tell how long it’s been since that bathroom door closed behind him - Mark would’ve been just as freaked out, but death really does teach you things. He forces his hands to grope around his pockets for a phone or something of the like. He finds an ipod and inspects his reflection on the screen. He comes to the conclusion that:

  1. it definitely isn’t him and
  2. this Jeno guy is unfairly handsome.



The voice - Jeno - clears its throat. _Thanks?_ Heat shoots up Mark’s neck.

“Maybe I’ll send you home,” the nurse finally says after he’s peered at the thermometer’s display and put it away. He writes a note, hands it to Mark and Jeno and ushers them out.

_So,_ Jeno starts, shuffling his feet. He steers them in the right direction when Mark almost takes a wrong turn on his way out of the building. _Where’s your own body? Like, if you’re even a real person and not something my brain’s made up._

Mark snorts. _Possibly still in the second floor bathroom but I have no clue how much time has passed, so the girls might’ve moved it -_ me _out of there already._

_The girls?_ Jeno repeats after Mark. Mark nods. In hindsight, not the most effective way to answer someone you’re sharing a body with. _What girls?_

_I don’t know, I’m new here. But one of them was called Sooyoung, I think,_ Mark explains. He pushes the front door open and starts trudging through the school’s yard.

_Oh, shit._ They _killed you? But they play with their Tamagotchi on breaks,_ Jeno yelps. He tugs his eyebrows into a frown. He starts fighting back against Mark walking on as fast as he can. _Wait, wait. Shouldn’t we check the bathroom out, then?_

Mark continues walking. He doesn’t want to go back there. Doesn’t want to see his own blood going down the drain and his eyes staring up at the ceiling. The dead always look like they’re crying and he’s never been good with that stuff. So he says, _It could be dangerous. I don’t want to die at their hands twice. Once is more than enough._

Jeno hums. It’s very probable he senses Mark’s apprehension because Mark can feel his barely suppressed bewilderment too. _Okay, fair point._

Jeno guides them to a bus station. Mark lets Jeno fiddle with the hem of his shirt and the straps of his backpack for the few minutes they have to wait for the bus. The bus comes and they hit the edge of at least three seats on their way to the back when the bus departs again and they both try to go for poles on opposite sides to steady themselves.

Mark sorts through his thoughts and fresh, raw memories and Jeno lets him without commenting on it much. When he comes to the part where his wrists are slit open, the plastic diamonds on the knife’s handle, Jeno shivers a bit. _Sorry_ , Mark says, because he is.

Jeno’s three-story apartment building is two blocks from the bus stop. Mark and Jeno trek up the stair. When they reach Jeno’s door they’re significantly less out of breath than Mark expected. Jeno only chuckles at his observation and turns the key in the lock.

“Ta-dah,” Jeno says aloud, throwing the door open with one hand and setting his keys on a little cupboard with the other. There’s no one home.

It’s a very usual flat, with a living room-slash-kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. Jeno’s room is a bit messy and oddly impersonal. It’s kind of soothing because Mark’s used to be just like that back in America. Not like the sterile little room full of boxes he still hasn’t unpacked he’s had to live in for a couple weeks.

Jeno throws his backpack in a corner and collapses on his neat pile of bedsheets. _I just realised how crazy this all is,_ he says, softly like he’s exhausted.

Mark hums. _Not what I expected from my first day to a new school._

Laughter bubbles in Jeno’s throat. _Understandable._

/

Getting the body out of the school without raising any suspicion is easier said than done. Once Mark’s soul’s presumably passed on to hell and Satan’s dinner table, once whatever blood Joohyun doesn’t need for the blood pancakes she sometimes makes on Saturdays has been scrubbed off the tiles and swept down the drain, Seulgi puts drops of a faintly green liquid into Mark’s unseeing eyes.

It’s a reanimation potion that only lasts from five to ten minutes. The girls guide Mark minus his spirit down to the furthest staircase and out of the school.

Mark goes limp again about one third of the way to the second-nearest cemetery but the girls neither see it nor care because he’s in the trunk of Joohyun’s Audi and they’re blasting Hips Don’t Lie. Yerim goes first to make sure no one’s around before they drag Mark to the back of the graveyard.

All of them chip at least one nail but don’t complain about it. They throw Mark’s body into the hole, cover him up and nod at each other.

“Movies?” Seungwan suggests, walking back towards the car, “There’s a film called _Wristcutters_ or something, it’s just come out.”

/

They wake up to Jeno’s ringtone. It’s the default one no one likes, but to be fair, Mark had a very similar one.

It’s someone called Donghyuck. Someone Jeno cares about, too, because warmth pools in Jeno’s - and by association, Mark’s - stomach when he presses the phone to his ear, his eyes still closed, and a soft voice comes through, “Hi, Jeno. Did you go home early?”

“Yeah,” Jeno says, rubbing at his hair. “The nurse told me to. I forgot to text you about it, sorry.”

Donghyuck laughs. “No, it’s okay. Really. Do you want me to come over?”

Jeno pauses to let Mark object if he wants to, but Mark doesn’t have anything against it. “Yes, please,” Jeno replies.

“Oh thank god you said yes, I’m almost there,” Donghyuck giggles, then hangs up.

Mark contemplates whether it’s a bit too personal to ask. But then again sharing a body is pretty personal, to hell with it. _What’s your relationship with this Donghyuck guy?_

Jeno shifts. A plethora of images and words swirls up. _Oh well, the faster you rip off the band-aid the less it hurts, I guess,_ he sighs. _We’re something. I think._

Mark sees Jeno sifting through memories, soft and blurry. _I see that_ , he hums. There’s Donghyuck sleeping with his head tucked under Jeno’s chin. Donghyuck wrestling with Jeno over who knows what. Donghyuck kissing Jeno, too. It’s definitely something.

_It’s kind of a secret though, so don’t slip up,_ Jeno says gleefully. _Should we tell him about what’s happened to us?_

Mark contemplates for a second. _I don’t think we should tell him,_ he finally reasons. Jeno jerks up an eyebrow. Mark pulls the eyebrow back down and explains, _I don’t think he would believe us. And what if he tells a bunch of people which leads to the government capturing us? Or the girls killing me. Again._

Jeno laughs aloud. The doorbell rings.

Donghyuck’s a bit shorter, tan lines on his wrists even though it’s February. His hair curls over the tip of his ears and just above his eyebrow. Mark struggles to make objective observations because of how in love Jeno seems to be with this boy. Like a size xxs sweater around his chest.

Mark doesn’t really know if he finds Donghyuck very cute either or if it’s Jeno’s suffocating heart talking. He only knows that Jeno sighs as Donghyuck swings onto the tips of his toes to press a kiss to his cheek and responds with, _Isn’t he?_

“What happened?” Donghyuck asks, taking a glass from a cupboard and a bottle of orange juice from the fridge.

Mark thinks briefly of the decorated knife and his wrists. A feeling of dread tightens around his throat, courtesy of Jeno, who replies, “What do you mean?”

Donghyuck takes a sip of his orange juice and pads into the living room. “Why did the nurse send you home?”

“Oh, yeah, that,” Jeno says. “I got really dizzy all of a sudden. I don’t know why—I’d got a paper cut right before, but I don’t think that was the cause.”

Donghyuck grabs the remote and turns the tv on. He starts skimming through channels. “Hmm. Had you eaten anything?”

“Yeah, breakfast and lunch,” Jeno says.

Settling on a lifestyle program and sitting back on the couch, Donghyuck comments, “That’s pretty weird.”

Mark and Jeno both think it’s weird, too. _Could that really be it? I cut into my finger and somehow allowed you to slip in?_ Jeno wonders, sneaking glances at Donghyuck through his lashes. The tv screen reflects off Donghyuck’s pupils.

_That’s probably the best theory we’ve got_ , Mark huffs.

They watch tv for a couple hours, sprinkling in little bits of conversation from time to time but otherwise silent, until Donghyuck’s sister calls for him to stop off at the store and he has to go. One foot out of the flat already, he grabs Jeno and Mark by the face before Mark has the time to react and kisses them with a bit of tongue. Mark never thought he would get kissed by a guy.

Jeno’s so happy he almost vomits and Mark spends the night trying to sunder Jeno’s feelings from his own.

/

It takes a day or two before the posters with Mark’s face appear. The principal holds a little speech about it in the sports hall. She says horrible at least a dozen times and Mark just wants to curl up in a corner but Jeno keeps them put in the third row. The picture of Mark on a pedestal is horrendously unflattering and painful to look at.

_Oh, so that’s what you look like,_ Jeno hums. _Nice._ Mark tilts his head.

Donghyuck’s standing right next to them. He leans in to whisper, “He’s really cute.”

Mark blushes and Jeno says, “I don’t think that’s a very appropriate thing to say. He’s been missing for a few days, his parents are probably worried sick.” Mark blinks, pained, and Jeno fills with a cold, clammy apologetical feeling.

Donghyuck tilts his head. “You’re right. I hope they find him soon, hot or not.” Then he picks a lash off Jeno’s cheek and Jeno’s heart basically ignites, then immediately calms down when he starts wondering if he has the right to feel jealous. Mark doesn’t have an answer for him.

Everyone’s bored, covering yawns with their palms, at an assembly about a guy who barely attended their school for half a day. It hurts a bit. Just a tiny bit, Mark admits to himself and accidentally to Jeno. The gears inside Jeno’s head start turning.

_I have a plan_ , Jeno says.

_Yeah, I know,_ Mark replies, because he was right there when Jeno put it together.

The plan: going to the pet store on the corner of the shopping street after school. There’s one of the _MISSING: MARK LEE, 17, AMERICAN ACCENT_ posters in the window. Mark’s parents must be going insane. He doesn’t want to imagine it.

Trudging to the back to the rodent section, the crazy thought of trying to explain the situation to his mom crosses Mark’s mind. Going to ring the doorbell and telling her he’s two souls in one body, one of the two her physically dead son. His dad looking up from the kitchen table and saying, _Very cruel of you to mess with us like this._

_We’ll get you back into your body as soon as possible,_ Jeno promises. Mark doubts it but, yeah, they might as well try. Jeno laughs. _Come on, Mark. A little faith._

A clan of gerbils peers at Mark and Jeno sitting on the floor. They decide looking for information about body switching at the library is their best bet for now.

_Alright, we can go there tomorrow_ , Mark hums. The reality of his situation is starting to settle in the nook of conscience reserved for him in Jeno’s head, bit by bit, at the back of the local pet store. He feels horrible, and even more horrible for making Jeno feel just as shitty.

An employee comes to ask them if they need help. Politely, Jeno opts for pretending they’re looking to potentially buy a hamster. The employee nods with a sunny smile and lifts a little grey hamster out of its cage, onto their palm. It shuffles for a bit, then looks at them straight in the eye, like it’s looking at them both.

Jeno was right. The pet store is oddly calming, the animals weirdly acknowledging of the current complexity of the inside of Jeno’s crane - even if it smells a tiny bit unpleasant and Mark feels bad for the bunnies and the rats and the turtles trapped in their cages and terrariums. Just like he is.

Jeno snorts. _Am I really that bad?_

/

It’s not hard to forget that to everyone else, they look like it’s just Jeno alone. Sometimes pursing his lips and raising his eyebrows and shaking his head to conversations that only exist between his ears.

“You’ve been hanging by yourself a lot, lately,” Renjun says, setting his pile of books down next to theirs.

Mark snorts. Solitude would be a luxury, no matter how accidentally charming Jeno is.

“I have?” Jeno asks. It’s been a few days of library after school, looking for notions of body swapping. The dusty smell of the eastern wing of the library’s started to cling to his clothes.

Renjun casts a very bland look on Jeno. “Well, yeah. Usually you’re slobbering all over Donghyuck, but now you don’t even come to the canteen during lunch. You’re giving up now?”

Apparently, Renjun’s the only person who’s caught on to Jeno and Donghyuck’s _thing_. Jeno’s memories tell Mark Renjun simply told him one day that he finds his crush on Donghyuck positively disgusting but will cope with it for the sake of their friendly co-existence.

_That was him being nice,_ Jeno chuckles.

“I’m just,” Mark takes over, flipping another page of their second book of the day, “busy. That’s all.”

Renjun sits down next to them and opens a book of his own. “Too busy reading books about satanism to stare at Donghyuck’s behind? I’m shocked.”

Mark almost blushes because Jeno starts thinking about it immediately. He hurries to flip another page and ducks his head to concentrate on reading.

Once again, there’s nothing very helpful about uprooting souls from their bodies. Mark sighs in frustration. At this rate he’s going to have to live in Jeno’s body and fight the queasy feeling at the bottom of his stomach every time they shower for the rest of their life.

Renjun yawns. “By the way, isn’t Donghyuck’s sister really into this dark magic kind of stuff?”

Mark and Jeno would share a look if they could.

/

Donghyuck looks up from his history notes spread over his bedroom’s floor. “Oh, you’re getting water? Would you mind getting me a glass too?”

Jeno shakes the numbness out of his legs, nods and heads out of Donghyuck’s room. Mark knows he feels bad for using studying at Donghyuck’s place as an excuse to hopefully extract intel out of his sister.

_It’s really not that serious. I’m sure he’s lied to you a hundred times,_ Mark deadpans as they shuffle down the hallway, towards the kitchen.

Jeno slaps a hand over his heart in mock hurt. _How can you say that about my angel? My honey vanilla cupcake?_

Mark almost laughs aloud. _Dude, have you seen his face? Fooling dumb jocks like you is probably his hobby._

Jeno’s quiet long enough for Mark to get worried that he’s angry. Then, he says, _That’s hot._

_You’re unbelievable_ , Mark sighs, shaking his head. Stepping into the kitchen, he looks up and promptly turns around.

_Wait, what’s wrong? That was Seulgi, didn’t we want to talk to her?_ Jeno tries to stop Mark but only manages to crane his neck to look back towards the kitchen’s doorway.

Mark can’t breathe. He can only think about getting out of the house and going home—America, that is, where he was completely normal. Where things as simple as driving to the gas station to buy crisps were enough for him. Where speech came as easy as breathing and he wasn’t fucking _dead_.

Seulgi is the girl who traced the pentagram, who sat on Mark’s left wrist and watched him die without batting an eye. He feels angry at Jeno for not telling him he was leading them into the same house with his murderer. For falling in love with said murderer’s little brother, too.

“Hey. You okay?” It’s Donghyuck, blocking Mark’s way to the front door. He cranes his neck to catch Mark’s gaze. “Where are you going?”

Mark’s so upset he can’t even say anything. He clenches and unclenches his fists, trying to blink away the tears, but Jeno’s enough in control of his own heart to keep him from pushing Donghyuck out of the way and escaping.

Mark wonders if Donghyuck knows how much power he has over Jeno. If he’s even used some kind of sick spell to chain him in. His sister cares about her Tamagotchi more than human lives, how can he be any different?

Suddenly, Mark’s chest tightens. _How can you even say that?_ It’s Jeno, his feeling of hurt spreading into every single one of their co-reigned nerves. _Do you think I could be this stupidly in love with someone who would fool me? I’m not as naïve as Renjun thinks._

_Jeno, I’m-_ Mark starts. He hopes Jeno feels how sorry he is, but Jeno’s anger’s still burning a hole into his stomach.

Donghyuck slides his hand into theirs and starts tugging them in the direction of his room. Jeno says, _You don’t deserve this._

It occurs to Mark that really, Donghyuck’s taking care of Jeno and not him as he pulls them to sit down on his bed. As he pulls their head to his chest, running his thumb over the shell of their ear. His heart pulsates in his chest like a burn on Mark’s ear.

“Wanna talk about something?” Donghyuck asks after a tiny eternity. Mark can only nod so he chuckles and continues, “Renjun apparently has a new puppy.”

_Isn’t Renjun allergic?_ Jeno wonders in the same time as Mark chokes out, “Oh. What breed is it?”

Donghyuck laughs. “The breed’s upperclassman jock and its name’s Wong Yukhei.”

“But then it’s not a puppy,” Jeno points out.

Donghyuck blinks at the sudden change in tone. “Well, yeah, but he’s like a giant puppy that just follows Renjun around. I can almost see him wagging his tail whenever Renjun even looks at him.”

It’s kind of a group effort with Jeno but Mark manages to smile a little. “That’s cute.”

“Yeah, super cute,” Donghyuck agrees. His thumb sounds a bit like ocean waves as it brushes over the shell of Mark’s ear. “Renjun must hate it.”

/

_I’m sorry,_ Jeno says, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom, _I didn’t remember she was one of them._

Mark turns onto his side. The numbers on Jeno’s alarm clock’s display are violent red. _It’s okay, don’t think about it. And I’m sorry too._

But not thinking is really, really hard, and not hearing others’ thoughts is even harder. Mark’s never felt so trapped.

/

The teacher’s going through his endless powerpoint and Jeno would sleep but Mark’s never been able to sleep anywhere except in a bed, not even on the miserable, long flight from America. His transplantation into a new life, and as events toppled over into the next, into a new body.

Mark flips a pen round and round. Jeno tried, too. Turns out he sucks at it.

_You know,_ Jeno says, instinctively glancing at the teacher even though he could never hear them, _we could infiltrate the group._

The pen clatters to the ground. Mark swoops down to pick it up. _What group?_ he asks, straightening up.

Mark doesn’t have the time to hope it’s not the group it most likely is because Jeno chirrups, _Well, the girls who killed you, obviously._

Mark nearly drops the pen again. Jeno starts patiently relaxing every muscle he’s tensed, one by one. _What? No, no, Jeno. No, we can’t do that._

_I know it’ll be painful but there’s not much else we can do to get your body back,_ Jeno argues. _They’re the only ones who know where they buried it, and probably also the only ones who know how to get you back to normal._

Mark’s thinking about Donghyuck holding him until he calmed down. The timbre of his voice, the words hitting the back of his teeth. _I don’t know, Jeno,_ he says, scared that being less than five metres from the girls might annihilate his already sore heart, _would you want to engage with your murderers barely a week or two after they’ve killed you? Or ever?_

_Let’s be honest, what library would actually have anything that could help us? I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if I didn’t think this is the only way,_ Jeno says.

Mark sighs. _Okay, we can give this a shot. But I really hate it._

_Yeah, I know. I’ll take care of it._

/

Apparently Jeno’s _taking care of it_ is walking up to the girls’ table in the canteen and declaring, “I know what you did to the American dude.”

The girl with _boys < tamagotchi _scribbled on the back of her little egg-shaped gadget clutched in her glossy claws looks up from her dancing bug. Mark finds himself the target of the exact same piercing - skewering - glitter-charged pentagaze he wishes he wasn’t familiar with.

“Should we kill him?” the girl asks the others blatantly, mouth barely moving. Jeno can’t decide if her name’s Bae Joohyun or Kim Joohyun.

Seulgi shrugs. She doesn’t seem against the idea. Feigning composure, Jeno says, “Nah, I would rather be the witness. I really admire your work.”

Joohyun puts her Tamagotchi down, intrigued. “Oh, yeah?” she challenges. “Why should we let you in on it?”

Mark hates what Jeno’s about to say. Jeno bends down closer to the girls and whispers in a conspirational manner, “I pushed my neighbour down the stairs.”

No, he didn’t. He _helped_ the old geezer down the stairs and carried his shopping trolley for him. But the girls seem somewhat intrigued, setting their chopsticks down by their trays and wiping the tips of their fingers on the hems of their skirts.

“Do you have pictures?” Sooyoung asks.

Jeno gulps. “Well, no. A lady heard the fall and called an ambulance, so I had to flee before I could enjoy it fully. I’m lucky my neighbour didn’t survive,” Mark blurts. He forces Jeno’s mouth into a pout. “I wish I was as skilled as you are.”

Jeno’s face seems to do its job. Joohyun’s mouth softens at the corners and she beckons them to sit next to her. Her earrings swing like pendulums. “Aw, it’s okay. We’ll teach you.”

“Really?” Jeno asks. His eyes must be shining, judging by the looks on the girls’ faces.

Joohyun pinches his cheek. “Oh, baby, of course. Welcome to the cult.”

/

It takes a week of shared lunch hours and six-way calls for Mark to learn to shun his flight reflex every time he hears Seungwan’s voice or sees Yerim’s pigtails. It also takes a week for the girls to judge Jeno totally murderous enough to have his initiation ceremony.

“Hey, sweetie, why don’t you join us at my place on Friday?” Joohyun says, sitting down. “We’re having a sleepover.”

Mark clogging their throat with the mucus-like feeling of wanting to cry, Jeno says, “That would be cool.”

So, Friday come, Jeno folds his whale-pattern pyjamas and sets out for Joohyun’s place, a big house in the suburbs. The front lawn’s neat, very characteristic of Joohyun. Mark stands on the edge of the pathway, looking down at the rich green, and says, _Do you have salt?_

_Why the hell would I?_ Jeno asks. _But yeah. I do._

Mark pours salt in a line, walking across the grass and back. Jeno’s mind runs, throwing around guesses as to what Mark’s tracing like they were playing charades.

_Oh,_ Jeno finally gets it. He puts the remaining wad of Burger King salt packs into his backpack. _Nice._

The doorbell is programmed full of almost mournful birdsong. Joohyun opens, phone clamped between her cheek and shoulder, the cord stretched out straight around the corner. “Yes, four pizzas,” she says into the phone, stepping aside to let Jeno in. “Hi, Jeno.”

“Hey,” Jeno greets back. He stoops down to undo his shoelaces, ultimately tied the way he wanted them after an extensive argument with Mark.

Joohyun completes the order, then shows Mark and Jeno upstairs to her room. Everyone except Sooyoung’s already there, sitting on the carpeted floor cross-legged. The glass of the ceiling lamp is pink. The room’s bathed in fuchsia.

Jeno’s pushed to sit between Seungwan and the vacant spot meant for Sooyoung. Immediately, Yerim leans over Seungwan with a devious smile and a blush brush. “Jeno baby, would you let me do your makeup?” she pleads, batting her lashes like a hummingbird’s wings.

Jeno’s much less opposed than Mark. He takes it upon himself to smile and reply, “Yeah, sure.”

Seungwan watches on in vague interest as Yerim, half sat on her lap, fusses over Jeno. Seulgi taps away on her phone at miraculous speed considering the length and ornateness of her nails. Every other minute, she looks up to check on Yerim’s progress and pulls faces at Jeno to make him ruin her focus by laughing.

Sooyoung toddles in just in time to see the result. “You look like you could kill someone,” she giggles, clapping her hands.

Yerim shoves a mirror in Jeno and Mark’s face. The blush on Jeno’s cheeks is exaggerated like he’s caught in a mild fever. His lips are painted a peachy pink. He looks like a pixie, heady and pretty, but Mark’s learned to fragment his thoughts so Jeno can’t make sense of them.

And Jeno’s learned to ignore Mark’s bullshit. _I look hot,_ he notes. Mark almost chokes on his spit.

The pizza arrives. Joohyun plonks the pile of boxes in the middle of their circle and pulls out her pocket knife. The blade bathes in the pink light like a sharp, grotesque tongue. One by one, she cuts each pizza in the form of a pentagram. Mark has to look away.

“After we’re done eating I think we could begin with your initiation ceremony,” Joohyun says, handing Jeno and Mark a slice of pizza.

Jeno bites into the pizza. “That would be great, I can’t wait!”

_What a fucking nightmare,_ Mark almost says out loud when Joohyun, after she’s wiped the grease from the corners of her mouth and her fingertips, presents them a row of bottles of blood, each labelled carefully. He sees his own name on one of the bottles.

“Am I supposed to drink it?” Mark asks, cautious.

Joohyun chuckles. “Eager, aren’t you? No, we’ll just use a bit for a little rite.”

Even opening the bottle of his own blood is an idea repulsing enough to make Mark go for _Jung Jaehyun_. Jeno squints at the name. _This one sounds familiar,_ he mumbles while he turns the bottle around in his hands.

Seungwan perks up. “That’s the Vans store employee’s, isn’t it?”

“Holy shit,” Jeno blurts before Mark can stop him. The girls pause. Turn to look at them.

_He sold me my favourite fanny pack,_ Jeno bemoans and Mark hurries to patch it up, “I really wanted to do him-” The girls don’t even blink. Jeno forgets the fanny pack. Mark almost screams. “-um. To kill him. I wanted to kill him, I can’t believe you got to him first.”

Seungwan finally lets her eyelids fall shut once. “Oh, I’m sorry. We didn’t know you had a murder crush on him, otherwise we would’ve let you take care of him.” The others nod along.

Mark lets out a soft sigh. Jeno lights their ears on fire in embarrassment. “It’s fine, I’ll just use his blood for the ceremony then. What should I do?”

Yerim scoots closer. “You just sit tight and think about - _doing him_.” A giggle escapes through the corner of her mouth.

Jeno almost does, but Mark quickly forces pig feet on top. Seulgi opens the little bottle, covers the mouth with her thumb and flips it over. A neat circle of blood on her thumb, she presses her finger against Jeno’s forehead. Her claws almost brush Jeno’s eyelashes as she pulls her hand back to get more blood.

Sooyoung’s the one reciting again. Not a few minutes away from his death this time, Mark is able to come to the conclusion that he has no idea which language she’s stuttering over. It sounds ancient. Fast and droning.

Joohyun leans over from time to time to correct Sooyoung under her breath. Jeno inhales, sits up straighter and exhales. _Look at me, getting a hot guy’s blood all over me._

_God. You’re becoming like the girls,_ Mark chuckles.

Jeno goes cross-eyed trying to look at the line Seulgi traces down his nose. _Even his blood smells handsome._

Sooyoung finishes and Seulgi screws the cap of the bottle back on. The girls all look at Jeno and Mark expectantly.

Jeno clears his throat. “That’s it?”

Joohyun laughs. “Yeah. Which movies should we watch?”

/

_Fuck. Do you remember where she put those bottles?_ Mark curses. He didn’t get a wink of sleep under the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck on Joohyun’s room’s ceiling. At breakfast he could barely touch his pancakes.

How the hell does this even happen to someone? You get killed, your soul dislocated and accepted into your murderers’ sick little cult. You get invited to their sleepover and every time one of them opens her mouth you’re sure she’s figured out that it’s you.

Also, the body you’re cohabitating with another boy in is confusingly gorgeous.

Jeno pulls open one of the drawers of Joohyun’s desk. _Somewhere around here, I think?_ he contemplates.

The bottles are in the bottom drawer, under a binder. Mark grabs the one with his name, explaining even though Jeno doesn’t really ask, _We might need it to get me back into my body. And I don’t want it all over some perv’s face._

Jeno hums. He changes out of his pajamas and stuffs them into his backpack, then bounds downstairs. The girls look up from a game of Uno set out on the kitchen table.

“Leaving already?” Sooyoung asks. Yerim takes the opportunity to peek at her cards.

Jeno pouts. “Yeah, sorry, my mom asked me to help her with assembling her new bed.”

Joohyun gets up, pads over to Jeno and presses a light kiss to his cheek. Mark almost flinches away. “Get home safe.”

The front door clangs shut behind Mark and Jeno. The grass’s already starting to die where Mark sprinkled the salt.

_I really hate this_ , Mark says weakly, starting off towards the tram stop a couple streets down.

Jeno exhales deep and long. _I know, I listened to you go on about it all night._

Mark hops over a crack in the pavement. _This isn’t a joke to me, Jeno. These people fucking slit my wrists open._

Jeno stops. An old man walking his dog gives them a look, flicking ash off his cigarette. _Well, I’m sorry_ , _but I’m just trying to get you back into your own body. You’re a great co-tenant, but I’d still like to have my body back for myself eventually._

Mark’s hurt. _Yeah, but you’re asking me to walk straight back into the lion’s den when I’ve already been bit. It’s a miracle I didn’t puke in there._

Jeno goes quiet, a feeling of regret budding in his gut. Mark thinks he recognises a bit of confusion thrown in. _I’m sorry, Mark. I’ll get us out of this mess. I promise._

Mark starts crying. Desperate to console him in some way, Jeno grabs his left hand and rubs circles around his knuckles.

_We’ll get your body back,_ Jeno whispers, and Mark’s never wanted someone to hold him so bad.

Donghyuck calls and Jeno lets go of his hand. First Donghyuck sneezes, then says, “Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

“No, not really,” Jeno says, resuming their trek to the tram stop. He wipes his eyes with his sleeve. His eyelashes stay wet and heavy.

Donghyuck pauses. “You okay?”

“Of course,” Mark replies a bit too fast. He blows out a shaky breath. “You don’t have to worry.”

Donghyuck lets out a little _eeeh_. “Would warm breakfast help?”

Mark and Jeno smile simultaneously, both rows of teeth. They get surprised and glance at each other through a house’s window. “Sure.”

/

Donghyuck taps his chopsticks against the table, adjusting his grip, and digs in. “You look like you got shampoo in your eye. Wanna talk about it?” he asks. His left cheek’s full of stir-fried rice and sweet and sour pork.

_Should we?_ Jeno asks. It’s obvious he wants to, he can barely stop himself from calling Donghyuck every time he sees a cat. Mark would know.

_Nah, not yet,_ Mark says. Aloud, “No, sorry. Maybe eventually.”

Donghyuck stares, then shrugs and goes back to eating. After he asks the waiter for a spoon and stuffs his face a bit more, he starts talking about a book he started and dropped two fifths in. Mark finally feels comfortable enough to eat properly, much to Jeno’s relief.

His own plate empty, Donghyuck waits for Mark and Jeno to be done, then grins and announces, “Let’s go to the bathroom.”

Jeno wipes his mouth and bangs his knee against the table in his hurry to follow Donghyuck. From there it’s pretty easy for Mark to make the jump to the conclusion.

Donghyuck locks the door behind them with one fluid motion of his wrist.

_Um, should we really be doing this?_ Mark stutters, trying very hard not to back away when Donghyuck half-runs to him and starts covering his face with kisses.

Jeno hums. _Just a bit, Mark, please? We can stop if you feel it’s too much._

Donghyuck’s got to the corner of Mark and Jeno’s mouth. _Okay,_ Mark agrees, and then Donghyuck kisses them full on the mouth.

Mark’s only done stuff like this with girls - if you don’t count his first day in Jeno’s body. Donghyuck’s hands are bigger and the joints knobbier as they brush over his ears and through his hair. He’s more tender in his movements, even when he bites on Mark and Jeno’s bottom lip, although that might be more down to him not being drunk and American.

Or it’s that he actually likes the person he’s kissing and vice versa. Mark almost has the time to ask himself if Donghyuck would still be licking into their mouth like this if he knew there were actually two boys aching for his touch instead of one. If he knew he was making the head of the guy who his sister participated in unsuccessfully sacrificing to Satan spin.

Donghyuck pulls away, breathing through his smile. Then, he starts fiddling with the buckle of Jeno’s belt. “Do you want to do it or should I?”

Mark’s stomach lurches. _Oh my god._

_You okay?_ Jeno asks, already moving to pull Donghyuck’s hand away. Mark can’t help but be impressed with his amount of willpower when faced with a boy like Donghyuck. _I can tell him to stop._

Mark swallows. _No, it’s fine. He’d be offended._

Jeno almost laughs aloud. “You do it.”

Donghyuck drops down to his knees. He glances up at Mark and Jeno to make sure he’s got the green light before he opens his mouth and plunges.

With the tip of Donghyuck’s nose almost brushing Jeno’s pubes, it’s exhilaratingly quiet inside Jeno’s skull. Mark makes the mistake of glancing at the mirror above the sink (Jeno’s eyes half-lidded, cheeks and ears flushed red - fingers pulling Donghyuck’s hair away from his face, lashes fanned out on his cheeks, jaw clear and sharp) and can barely contain himself.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

/

Donghyuck straightens the five-thousand won bill he found in his uniform’s pocket against the flank of the western building’s vending machine, the only one with Pocari Sweat left. The machine finally accepts his payment. The blue-labelled bottle falls down.

Opening his drink, Donghyuck glances around the hallway before he leans toward Mark and Jeno. Mark misinterprets it - or wants to misinterpret it - and presses a kiss to his mouth.

Donghyuck pulls away, startled. “That’s not what I intended to do. But alright.” He pecks Mark and Jeno on the lips again. That done, he moves on to their left ear and whispers, “I know it’s you in there, Mark.”

_What the hell,_ Jeno says.

Donghyuck tilts his head. “Hate to admit it, but Renjun was the first one to notice something was up. He saw you reading some books about satanic rites or something. Honestly, at first I thought he was trying to dissuade me from dating Jeno.” He pauses, like to see how Mark’s reacting. “Then I saw how you reacted to my sister. Also, you got perfect marks on those English tests and that’s just not something Jeno can do. So that’s that.”

“Oh,” is all Mark can say. _Does he think you’re not in here?_

_Like, you ate my soul and took its place? Dunno,_ Jeno answers.

“I’m just asking to be sure - did you do something to Jeno or…?” Donghyuck trails off.

_Bingo,_ Jeno chimes, as Mark replies, “No, we’re both…” He raps his knuckles against his temple.

Donghyuck blinks. “Oh, wow, okay.”

Jeno crosses his arms theatrically. _His man could’ve been replaced with a random guy and this is how he reacts?_ “You talk about it like you almost lost your puppy!”

Donghyuck’s eyes light up. “Jeno, right?” Jeno nods. “I’m sorry, baby. I never really even internalised the possibility that you could be gone. Same goes for this whole situation, honestly.”

“Yeah, we know,” Mark says. So Donghyuck knew and still kissed him and blew him? Dear god.

_Quit falling in love with my kind-of boyfriend,_ Jeno jokes from the sidelines. But Mark can’t detect any resentment. Honestly, what the hell.

/

“So that’s what happened,” Donghyuck nods. He shrugs his jacket off and kicks his Vans into the corner. “I knew Seulgi was into some weird stuff. I had my doubts but I never thought she would do that to a human being.”

Jeno snorts. “You don’t seem all that surprised.” He turns his key in the front door’s lock.

Donghyuck shrugs. Explains, “Yeah, well, my mom’s always telling me how she pissed off some bus driver when she was pregnant with Seul, which resulted in the driver cursing her first-born or something. She thinks he wasn’t being serious, though.”

_Your boyfriend’s just as crazy as you are,_ Mark comments, dropping Jeno’s key into the jar on the foyer’s cupboard. He feels the laundry basket in his arms slipping and readjusts his grip.

Jeno steps out of his slippers. _You’re not that much better, don’t worry._

Donghyuck walks straight to the living room couch and flops down. Jeno and Mark follow suit, watching him from above.

Voice stunted by his odd position on the couch, Donghyuck says, “We need a plan.”

“A plan?” Mark echoes.

“That’s what I said,” Donghyuck snorts.

While Mark and Jeno hang the laundry up to dry on the balcony, Donghyuck revises a plan: “I’ll blackmail Seul into telling me how to switch you back. You two-” Jeno kisses him just above the eyebrow on his way past to get more clothespins from the cleaning closet, “-will smile extra prettily at the girls so they’ll show you where they buried the body.”

_We were supposed to get out of that cult thing, though,_ Jeno laments. He almost repeats it aloud, but Mark stops him.

_It’s fine. I can take a couple more times._

Donghyuck starts playing around with his sweatpants’ strings. Mark and Jeno both feel the exact same thing. Startled, they drop the pillowcase they’re hanging up and have to run down to get it. Donghyuck gets up to laugh at them from the balcony.

/

It doesn’t even take a couple more times. Next day, Jeno’s class has pe in the same time as the older girls. Seungwan deliberately misses a ridiculously easy serve, shrugs, and walks over to where Mark and Jeno are waiting for their team’s turn to play.

“Hey,” Seungwan says, crossing her arms. “How’re you doing?”

Mark glances away from the match. “Fine. You?”

“Same. Joohyun told me to ask you if you’d like to go on a murder tour tomorrow after school,” Seungwan says.

_Murder tour?_ “Murder tour?”

Seungwan shifts her weight from her left foot to her right foot and explains, “We’ll just show you all the places we’ve buried people and stuff. It’s about time you knew, so you can start participating in the real action.”

Jeno forces out a laugh. “Of course, I’d love to.”

/

The girls are all already  waiting in the car in front of the school. Delayed by Donghyuck and his mouth, Jeno and Mark rush over last and therefore have to sit in the middle seat in the back.

_I’d rather die_ , Mark complains, climbing over Seulgi to his seat.

Jeno chuckles. _Would you?_

One hand turning the key in the ignition, Joohyun twists around and heaves a plastic bag over the centre console. “I made some snacks. Don’t get anything on the seats,” she warns, gesturing for Jeno and Mark to take care of the food.

Containers of kimbap and dumplings open on Mark and Jeno’s lap and everyone’s seat belts fastened, they roll down the hill from the school, towards the city centre. Seungwan starts scrolling through radio channels.

“Where’s Sooyoung?” Jeno asks, munching on a dumpling. “This is good.”

Joohyun smiles through the rearview mirror and Seungwan, without raising her eyes from a map speckled with red crosses open on her lap, says, “She’s in detention.”

Jeno hums. “For?”

Seungwan waves her hand. Mark holds out the kimbap towards her. “She cut holes in a couple other girls’ shirts.”

“Huh,” Jeno says.

The first stop is just a regular house. They pile out of the car. Joohyun stands in front of the others like a tourist guide and commentates, “When this was still an empty lot, we buried someone here. It’s quite convenient they built a house on top, it’s not very likely he’ll ever be found.” She stops to contemplate the house for a second. A child peeks through a second floor window’s blinds. “Hope they’re not too badly haunted. On to the next stop!”

All in all, there aren’t that many places to visit. There’s the far corner of a park, the backyard of an abandoned house, behind a train station. “It’s  because we just have too much homework, there’s no time left over,” Joohyun says. Mark’s never been thankful for homework before. She puts the brake on and unlocks the doors. “Last stop, babies.”

Jeno stretches his limbs out. _They still haven’t mentioned you_ , he notes.

_Yeah, this is the last chance._ A feeling of despair gains momentum in Mark’s stomach.

Led by Joohyun, they stomp in single file through tall, ornate iron gates. Statues of saints watch them trod up and down cobblestone pathways.

Joohyun doesn’t stop until they reach the very back of the cemetery, behind a little hillock. She kicks at the ground a bit, until she manages to lift the corner of a piece of lawn.

“That’s the American kid, right there,” Seulgi says.

Mark fills with surprise, unsure if he should feel relieved. His body’s there, at the back of an old, full cemetery. He wonders if it still has the same jeans, blood all over. If maggots have already started to eat away at it.

Yerim stoops down on top of the little mound to tie her shoelaces.

/

Donghyuck’s phone rings.

“Hey, Hyuck,” Seulgi yaps through the phone, “I forgot my keys, come let me in.”

Donghyuck glances out of his window. He sees Joohyun’s car’s tail lights and Seulgi standing at the door, like a sepia photo.

Donghyuck gallops down the stairs, but doesn’t open the door straight away. “I’ll let you in on one condition,” he calls.

Seulgi kicks at the door. The streetlight falling in through the window on the door trembles. “You moron, let me in!”

“If you do my homework, I will,” Donghyuck chippers.

Seulgi sighs. “Okay. Sure. Just open the door.”

Donghyuck does. He steps to the side and Seulgi crouches, undoing her shoelaces. Donghyuck crosses his ankles, leaning against the wall.

“Out late with the girls?” Donghyuck asks.

Seulgi glances up. “Yeah.”

“Cool. I’ll leave my homework on your desk,” Donghyuck says, prancing back upstairs.

Seulgi shakes her head and straightens up. Setting off towards the kitchen to get something to drink, she ties her hair up in a ponytail.

Donghyuck’s _homework_ ’s waiting on her desk. She sits down, puts her glass of water on her desk and examines it. Math problem, math problem, math problem, question scribbled in red pen.

Her chair’s left swivelling. She stomps out of her room, to Donghyuck’s. “What the fuck is this?” she asks, holding up the paper.

Donghyuck doesn’t look up from his DS. Instead, he raises a hand. “Wait, I’m about to clear this level.”

“I’m going to kill you, you little shit,” Seulgi growls.

Donghyuck lifts his eyebrows. “Oh, like you killed all of your goldfish and hamsters? I think mom and dad don’t know. For now.”

“Why do you want to know?” Seulgi asks, waving the paper around. Her little brother’s blackmailed her before, but never like this. He hasn’t shown any sign of even being aware of the occult and suddenly he demands to know how to resurrect someone and swap bodies.

Donghyuck shrugs. “I really want to try being Kurt Cobain for a day.”

Seulgi turns on her heel and returns to her room.

/

“I got it, I got it!” Donghyuck cheers. He takes the paper, folded up, out of his pocket and waves it in Mark and Jeno’s face.

In the blur of the moment, Mark isn’t sure whether it’s Jeno or himself thinking he loves Donghyuck, but he knows the feeling of relief is both of them. Along with Donghyuck, they jump around, overjoyed.

“What’s the occasion?” It’s Renjun, satchel dragging one shoulder down. Glasses on top of his head.

Jeno, Mark and Donghyuck halt. Jeno and Mark start thinking up excuses but quickly deem each other’s ideas completely useless.

Donghyuck replies, “I passed a really hard level on Mario.”

Renjun lifts an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.” He adjusts his satchel’s strap on his shoulder. “Well, I have to go. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Jeno, Mark and Donghyuck watch him trudge away, loafers clopping as he goes. _What did he mean?_ Mark asks.

_He’s probably just fucking with us._

Mark isn’t sure if meeting up late at the cemetery’s gates on a school night counts as doing something stupid. Donghyuck doesn’t seem to think it does. He zips his jacket up to his chin and climbs over the brick wall.

Mark and Jeno follow suit. Jeno pulls out his dynamo torch and starts cranking it. Donghyuck glances at him through the corner of his eye. “Ever heard of normal torches?”

Jeno sniffs. “Not like you brought one either.”

The torch loaded, they creep to the back of the cemetery. They stop off at the graveyard keeper’s shed to snatch a couple of shovels.

Finding the detached piece of lawn takes a while. By the time they find it Jeno’s jeans’ knees are stained with grass.

Every time the shovel hits the ground, Mark’s terrified someone’ll hear. Donghyuck huffs, sweat glistening just over his eyebrow. The earth is moist, musty and black.

Finally, a piece of plastic sticks out. They lift Mark’s body out and open the bag.

The smell is so strong Donghyuck takes a step back. Mark sees his own body, already starting to decompose, for the first time in two weeks. He marches to the nearest tree and pukes.

Pinching his nose, Donghyuck takes the paper out and starts following the steps Seulgi’s written down. He traces a circle around Mark’s body and writes something above his head and digs the bottle of Mark’s blood out of Jeno’s pocket because Mark’s still vomiting by the tree and can’t do it himself.

Shuddering, Donghyuck pushes Mark’s mouth, cold blue lips, open and drops exactly three drops of his blood on his tongue. Then, he squints at the paper. “How the fuck do you pronounce this?”

“It probably doesn’t matter,” Mark chokes out, unable to look at Donghyuck carry out the ritual.

Donghyuck reads the text out, voice nasal. Almost done with the spell, he pauses to order, “Prick your finger now,” so Jeno does, with a needle he took from his mom’s sewing kit. A pearl of blood springs out.

The rest of the text spat out, Donghyuck pockets the paper and steps back. Jeno forces Mark to peek over his shoulder. For a second or two or three, nothing happens.

The canopies of the trees shiver in the warm autumn breeze. A car whooshes past on the other side of the wall. Donghyuck pushes a strand of hair behind his ear.

Jeno’s torch flickers off, out of power. Jeno and Mark do too.

/

Seungwan wakes in cold sweat. Her bedsheets rustle like leaves. She feels a knot in her hair at the nape of her neck. She gets up, grabs her phone with trembling hands, dials Seulgi.

“Something’s wrong,” Seungwan tells Seulgi, who then tells Yerim, who tells Sooyoung, who tells Joohyun, who tries to tell Jeno. He doesn’t pick up the phone.

Yielding her big brother’s baseball bat, Seungwan steps out of her house. She’s still in her sweaty nightgown. Converses’ laces stuffed inside in a hurry, uncomfortable under her heels.

She lifts her nightgown to take out her flip phone, hooked on the side of her panties. She presses it against her ear. “Yeah?”

“Can you tell what happened?” Joohyun asks. The sound of her zipping up her boots crackles through the phone.

Seungwan taps the tips of her sneakers with the bat. “Someone’s been brought back, probably.”

/

Mark sits up suddenly.

Donghyuck yelps. His eyes are pink-rimmed, droopy. “Shit, you scared me.”

Mark looks down and sees blood-stained jeans, his stupid old Stan Smiths. Fresh pink scars crossing his wrists.

Donghyuck watches on, sitting cross-legged between Jeno, who’s awake, too, but is still lying down, and Mark. His hand threads through Jeno’s hair absentmindedly. “Yeah, that’s you, Mark,” he says, low and tender.

Mark rubs at his face with his hands. His nerves are still waking up. “Do I look horrible?”

Jeno barks out a laugh. Donghyuck answers, “For someone physically just brought back from the dead, not bad at all.”

Mark’s mind is ridiculously quiet. The first thing he does is wonder what Jeno’s thinking about, staring up at the sky, under Donghyuck’s palm.

“What’s going through your mind, Jeno?” Mark croaks. His voice’s roughened by weeks of disuse.

Jeno sniffs. “I’m wondering what’s going through yours.” His tone sounds a bit higher outside his head, now that Mark can’t feel it reverberate in his bones anymore.

Donghyuck laughs. It almost sounds like he’s crying. “Idiots,” he says, and bends down to kiss Jeno.

Mark watches them. With three drops of blood and an odd chant he’s been extracted from their relationship. He didn’t wedge himself in-between Jeno and Donghyuck on purpose, but he wasn’t able to leave the feelings behind in Jeno’s body either.

Donghyuck catches Mark staring. His grin is wide and white even through the darkness. “I would kiss you too, but I’d prefer to wait until you’ve brushed your teeth a couple of times.”

Mark glances at the mess by the tree. “Uh, well.”

Donghyuck’s follows Mark’s gaze. Jeno laughs. He grimaces and wipes at his mouth. “Oh my god, _ew_. I didn’t even think about that.”

While Mark and Jeno were unconscious, Donghyuck had the time to fill the hole up again and cover it. On the way back to the eastern end of the cemetery, where they climbed over the wall, he shows off the chafes on his hands.

Mark has to be helped over the wall because his joints are still stiff. Jeno lifts and Donghyuck pulls and Mark convinces himself he’ll be fine letting them go back to being just Jeno and Donghyuck. Like they were before he crash landed into their lives.

“Let’s go to my place,” Jeno says, rubbing at the grass on his knees to see if it’ll come off.  “We can’t let you go home looking like that.”

There’s a problem, though: the girls appear at the end of the street just as Jeno’s holding the door to his apartment building open for Mark and Donghyuck. Quickly, he shoves Mark and Donghyuck inside and turns around, pretending to check if he’s got money.

When Jeno starts trudging in the opposite direction, towards the nearest mini mart, Yerim yelps, “Jeno!” She jumps up and down, crossbow slapping against her thigh.

Donghyuck jams his cheek against the glass of the door, trying to see what’s going on. “What are they doing?” Mark asks, pressed up against the wall.

“Dunno, they’re talking about something.” Donghyuck’s sentence is as squashed as his cheek, words sticking to the glass. He peers at Jeno jogging over to the girls and kissing each of them on the cheek. “Is that _mom’s bread knife_ Seulgi’s got?”

“ _What?_ ” Mark hisses, mustering up the courage to take one glimpse at the situation outside before backing up against the wall again. “Are they going to do something to Jeno?”

Donghyuck frowns. “I’m going to make sure they get to heaven if they do,” he informs Mark.

Jeno doesn’t dare glance back so he crosses his fingers behind his back instead, palms turning clammier every second Sooyoung spends polishing the handle of her taser. A siren wails somewhere in the distance but Joohyun doesn’t even blink.

“Where were you going?” Yerim asks.

“To the mini mart,” Jeno says, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

Yerim purses her lips. Her eyes glint in amusement. “In those dirty clothes?”

Jeno’s chuckles come out a bit wonky. “Yeah, uh, I played a bit of football with my classmates during lunch hour but fell asleep as soon as I got home, so I still haven’t changed out of these.”

“Didn’t your mom get angry? I would’ve,” Joohyun disapproves. She licks her thumb and rubs a little patch of dirt off Jeno’s cheek.

“She doesn’t stay here most of the time,” Jeno replies. When Joohyun looks at him, incredulous, he elaborates, “Work.”

“Aw. You’ll have to invite us over sometime, so you won’t feel lonely,” Sooyoung coos.

Jeno scratches the back of his head. “Yeah, of course. But why are you guys out this late? And why are you carrying,” Jeno gestures at the girls’ weapons, “all that stuff?”

“We’re hunting,” Yerim says, canine teeth glinting, and Jeno suddenly remembers these girls killed Mark.

“Oh,” Jeno lets fall out of his mouth. The girls all stare at him. Startled, he notices none of them have makeup on. No sparkly, school regulation-violating eyeshadow or blush or lipstick. He even sees a pimple on the side of Seungwan’s nose, another on Sooyoung’s forehead.

The stare’s somewhat harder to cope with, what with the girls looking less doll-like and more human. Jeno swallows, tongue sticking against his palate, and says, “Well, have fun. I’m going to go buy some nice snacks and go back to bed.”

Seulgi smiles. “We’ll walk you to the store.”

/

As soon as the flat’s front door clicks shut behind them, Jeno gathers both Mark and Donghyuck into his arms. Donghyuck nuzzles his nose against his neck in response. Jeno’s grip’s so strong Mark’s cold joints ache.

Mark detaches himself quietly and stumbles to the bathroom. He steps out of his bloody, loamy clothes. The showerhead hisses.

Mark doesn’t know how he’ll go home. The posters would be taken down and the girls would know for sure. They’ll come for him, even if his scars are still tender pink.

Donghyuck’s gone home by the time Mark steps out of the bathroom. Jeno hands him a pile of clothes and smiles tentatively. “At least we’re all alive.”

Mark lets out a soft sigh. “Yeah. Barely.”

/

Mark sits cross-legged on the futon, duvet bunched around him. “Yeah, well, I didn’t really figure I could just waltz back home and tell my parents I was killed by a glittery satanist cult.”

Mark’s hair’s all over the place - he fell asleep before they’d dried completely. There were no dreams, neither his nightmares nor Jeno’s painfully boring recaps of his days. He doesn’t remember sleeping better, not even back home.

Jeno leans against the bathroom’s door frame and chuckles around his toothbrush, “Of course you didn’t. I’m just saying you should sit tight, we’ll figure out something when I come back from school.”

Mark fiddles with the corner of the duvet. “Whatever. Bring something nice to eat on your way back.”

Jeno spits out a laugh along with the toothpaste foam into the sink, finishes washing up and changes into his uniform like Mark isn’t right there. Although, it’s not anything Mark hasn’t seen before. It’s not like Mark didn’t do the buttons himself a couple of times when Jeno was thinking about something else.

Mark flops onto his back. He pulls the duvet over his head.

/

The upperclassman hovering behind him, Renjun pinches the bridge of his nose. “I told you to avoid getting into trouble,” he sighs, glaring at Jeno and Donghyuck from under his hand.

Donghyuck lifts his hands. “Trouble? What trouble?”

“Save it, Lee,” Renjun snaps. Yukhei’s picking at his cuticles without a care in the world. Renjun continues, “I’ve been working on them for _months_ and you just - you just go and do I don’t know what, all I know is they didn’t like it! Fuck me, am I right?”

Yukhei hums. Renjun turns around to kick him in the shin.

Jeno and Donghyuck share a look. Donghyuck says, “Wait, wait. You’ve been working? What’s that mean? On who?”

“I’ve been investigating that little cult your boyfriend’s apparently decided to join. Ring a bell?” Renjun’s satchel’s strap slides off his shoulder, onto the crook of his elbow, as he waves his hands around. “I was intending to put them under a ban, too, but I’m not sure how I’m going to do that anymore, now that they’re on high alert.

“Slow down a bit, Jun,” Jeno pleads. “What’s your role in this?”

Renjun huffs. Yukhei lifts his bag’s strap back onto his shoulder for him while he starts explaining, “You know how I’ve always said my parents work for the police?” Jeno nods and Donghyuck stuffs his hands in his pockets. “It’s not false but it’s not the whole truth, either. Their unit specialises in people exactly like those girls. The supernatural, essentially.”

Donghyuck purses his lips. “And you never thought to tell your best friend this?”

“You never told me you were the one who broke my iPod. I think we’re equal now,” Renjun retaliates. Donghyuck yelps in protest. “Well, anyway, now you owe me a hand with this.”

Donghyuck crosses his arms. “What do you want us to do?” Jeno pinches his side, trying to break his frown, but only succeeds in getting his ear tugged.

Renjun says, “I need one hair from each of them,” and Jeno repeats it to Mark once he and Donghyuck have returned from school, carrying plastic bags loaded with take-out.

Mark looks up from his snake game. He’s been at it all day, the snake stretches way beyond the tiny screen of his Nokia that’s miraculously survived both getting soaked with blood and being washed thoroughly with soap water. “Okay. How are you going to get them?”

Donghyuck puts the bags on the kitchen counter. He starts going through the cupboards for plates and glasses. “I suggested Jeno ask them to practice making braids with their hair. It wouldn‘t be hard to pull a few out.”

Mark’s snake bites its own tail. He moves to sit on the couch’s armrest and says, “That’s not a bad idea.”

“See, I told you Mark would agree with me,” Donghyuck shouts to Jeno, who’s gone to the bathroom.

“But I’ve never braided hair in my life,” Jeno shouts back. Mark hears him flush and wash his hands before he opens the door and, trudging to the kitchen to grab the food, continues, “Wouldn’t it be suspicious if I had no clue at all how it’s done?”

“Why can’t you just practice on us?” Mark asks.

Donghyuck brings a pile of plates and glasses to the coffee table. “I thought you seemed a bit more rational while he was in your head.”

Jeno doesn’t seem offended, just laughs. “That took both of us.”

/

Donghyuck is the only one with a sister but Mark’s hair is a bit too short to practice on so Donghyuck ends up sitting on the floor, between Jeno’s knees. Cartoon network’s on. Jeno tries to undo a failed braid too hastily and ends up creating a knot.

Donghyuck whines. Mark and Jeno both start fussing over him, like they’re one body again.

They turn to look at each other. A mix of the streetlight from outside and the clinical glow of the tv screen clings to the tips of Jeno’s eyelashes. It’s so different to look at him head on, not through mirrors or windows or puddles.

Mark looks away and gets up to fetch a brush from the bathroom.

/

Jeno stands over Renjun, who’s dismantling five Tamagotchis on the stairs of the eastern building’s staircase. He hops down a few steps and sits next to Renjun.

“Did you get the hair?” Renjun asks. His glasses are on top of his head, left lense cracked. There are red ovals from the nose pads on each side of his nose.

“Yeah,” Jeno replies. He holds up a minigrip with exactly five strands of hair. “What happened to you?”

Renjun pushes the wad of cotton wool further up his nose. “Nothing.”

“Football?” Jeno guesses.

The corner of Renjun’s mouth rises up as he opens the minigrip and takes out a strand of hair. Proceeding to coil it around and between a Tamagotchi’s components, he exaggerates, “You really think I would keep my glasses on during that carnage? You lowly contact lense user.”

Jeno chuckles. “Right. Need any help with that?”

“No, it’s fine.” Renjun moves on to the next gadget. “I actually had to go exorcise a little girl on my lunch break. She was a bit of a kicker.”

Jeno’s eyes widen. “Damn.”

Renjun glances at him. “Yeah, well, this,” he waves a hand in front of his face, “was Yukhei, not her. He should really keep his limbs in check.”

Jeno laughs. “It’s so cute you’ve got a boyfriend now.”

Renjun lets out a _tsk_ through the corner of his mouth and says, “Just count your own first.”

/

Jeno’s never liked the concept of revenge, but when the girls stare at him, red-painted mouths open, it feels kind of good. Joohyun’s packed lunches were very nice but he thinks he likes Mark better.

Seungwan combs her wet fringe with her fingers. “So you were lying to us the whole time.”

Squirming, Jeno eplies, “You make me sound so mean.”

Renjun sprays a couple of times more in Joohyun’s face, just to be sure. He holds up the spray bottle he stole from his mom’s garden shed to the light, checking how much more of his anti-murderer potion he’s got left.

Joohyun sputters and swats at the liquid softly raining down on her cheeks. Her mascara’s already starting to run. “Okay, okay,” she whines, making to smack Renjun upside the head, “we get it, you can stop now.”

Renjun presses on the handle one more time. He tuts, “Clearly you don’t. If you ever harm someone on purpose again you’ll be trapped in these Tamagotchis for the rest of your lives, got it?”

“I really don’t see why we should believe him,” Yerim pipes up. She sniffs at her blazer. “It smells like he just sprayed some of his mom’s cheap perfume on us.”

Renjun digs a badge out of his pocket and waves it in Yerim’s face. “You really should take what I say to heart. If you value your freedom.” The Tamagotchis jingle, attached to a belt loop on his jeans.

“You’ve aged down considerably. Which skin products do you use?” Yerim giggles, squinting at the picture on the badge. It’s Renjun’s dad in the picture, he explained to Jeno while he was briefing him on how to lure the girls to classroom number 206 at precisely twenty past one in order to be de-satanised, he doesn’t have his own badge yet because that would officially make it child labour.

Renjun tilts his chin up. “That’s not the point.”

Jeno watches on cautiously. Seulgi’s been staring at him since the first squirt of Renjun’s bottle, probably hurt that her manic pixie murder boy turned out to be a double agent.

Joohyun draws in a sharp breath like she’s just realised something. “Are you responsible for the giant penis on my lawn?”

“Well,” Jeno says like he didn’t catch the question, voice cracking, “was borderline nice knowing you guys. Mark says hi, by the way.”

/

Mark doesn’t say hi. In fact, he doesn’t say anything when Jeno breaks the news to him. He simply stares at his hands, tears welling up in his eyes. He hasn’t gone outside since the night his body was dug up, or even got out of bed much.

“You can go home now,” Jeno tries. “They can’t hurt you or anyone else anymore.”

Mark clears his throat. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Jeno says. He lingers by the door, watching Mark wipe at his cheeks with the heels of his palms. A gust of wind breezes in through the window propped open with a paperback. Jeno kneels next to Mark and pulls his head to his chest. Fingers threading through the hair at the nape of Mark’s neck, he asks, “Want me to come with you?”

/

Mark turns to look back. Jeno waves at him through the glass door, smiling like he’s just walked his friend home after floorball practice.

Mark turns around to push the call button of the lift. Muted, he hears Jeno’s phone ringing and his answer, “Hey, Hyuck-ah.” The doors slide open. He steps into the lift and turns around to see Jeno still looking at him, grin double-fold now that he’s got Donghyuck’s voice in his ear, probably whining about something insignificant.

The doors slide back shut. The ride up to the fifth floor feels like an eternity. Mark rehearses what he’s going to say when his mom or dad opens the door. He was in shock because they left America so suddenly. He ran away from home. He realises it was stupid. He should’ve been more considerate of their feelings.

Mark rings the doorbell - the girls got rid of his backpack and his keys, his wallet, his New York keyring along with it - and waits. His mom opens.

“Couldn’t even make it on time for dinner?” she says, snot already running down her face. Mark forgets everything he was supposed to say.

/

On his first day to a new school, Mark sure as _hell_ doesn’t step foot in a bathroom. He marches past the minimarket on the way to school without stopping to buy a bottle of water, which leaves him with no choice but to actually answer when he’s asked if everyone in America really is fat.

His parents agreed to let him transfer, probably in fear of him running away again. He transferred, in fear of getting killed again despite Renjun’s pre-emptive operation that Jeno described to him with the care of someone with superglue in one hand and a shard of something broken in the other.

He transferred because he’s scared of Jeno and Donghyuck and whatever’s between them. It’s hard to even touch something like that when you’ve felt it first hand, Jeno’s rib cage swelling until it hurts. No way Mark could dream of having, provoking something like that.

He makes friends pretty quick. No one seems to be obsessed with Tamagotchi or pentagrams so that’s something. And for a few weeks, it works. He goes to school and to the diner two blocks from school with his classmates and then back home. His parents seem to be holding their breaths every time they come home from work.

Donghyuck calls on a Thursday. Mark doesn’t have his number in his contacts but recognises it from the four-four-seven-seven. He watches his phone turn on the table, rattling, until it stops. He thinks about the slope of Donghyuck’s nose and the corners of his mouth and grabs his phone and calls him back.

“You called back,” Donghyuck says.

“Yeah,” Mark says.

Donghyuck chuckles nervously. “Listen, Jeno actually lent you his favourite hoodie but was way too faint of heart to call you about it himself. So here I am, hah.” Mark can almost hear a second breath, the phone possibly sandwiched between Jeno and Donghyuck.

“Yeah, sorry, I forgot about that completely.” He didn’t, he sometimes just stands shoulder-deep in his closet, breathing. “When does he want it back?”

“Do you have time now?” Donghyuck asks after a split-second pause.

“I haven’t washed the hoodie yet,” Mark blurts.

“It’s fine,” Donghyuck says, “you can come to Jeno’s now.”

Mark takes a deep breath. “Alright,” and he hangs up.

Mark shoves all the clothes Jeno gave him when his own had to be thrown away into a plastic bag, puts on his cousin’s hand-me-down Reeboks and sets off. He stops off at the store to buy a bottle of water.

All the way from his place to the underground station to the bus station to Jeno’s place, Mark thinks about turning around and going back home. He even thinks about it when Jeno opens the door and steps away to let him in.

Mark trudges inside. Donghyuck’s leaning against the kitchen counter, tilting a glass of orange juice back and forth. “Hey,” he says.

Mark plays with the handles of the bag. “Hi.”

Jeno sighs. Mark had almost forgotten how much he missed him. “Mark, um, we actually wanted to talk to you ages ago already but you changed schools without saying anything so we - well, _I_ kept putting it off until Donghyuck went and called you earlier. I don’t actually give a shit about that hoodie, I would give you anything in the world.”

“Yeah,” Mark chokes out. He starts tapping his fingernails against the cap of his water bottle.

“Yeah,” Jeno repeats, “but it’s just - it’s just that we both like you way too much to just let you go like this. Is there any way you’d like to be with us?”

“You can say no,” Donghyuck adds. “We’ll get it.”

Mark looks at Jeno and Donghyuck, three seconds each. Then, he opens the bottle and downs it in one go. Jeno and Donghyuck watch, unsure how to take it.

Water gone, Mark still finds himself with a question he has to answer. Quietly, he says, “I’d like that.”

Jeno and Donghyuck glance at each other. They walk up to Mark and wrap their arms around him. He feels Jeno’s breath in the crook of his neck and Donghyuck’s just behind his ear.

“Idiots,” Donghyuck says. Mark and Jeno imitate the crack of his voice so he makes them shut up by pushing their heads together.

The only way Mark’s going back to America is over his dead body.

**Author's Note:**

> only people braver than the us marine got this far  
> glad if u liked it, if u didn't u can keep it to urself thanks


End file.
